Lately, especially in convenience stores, it has become fashionable to offer a self serve snack or sandwich bar with prepackaged prepared food portions such as sandwiches, hotdogs, hamburgers, and the like which then may be reheated by the customer in a microwave provided by the store. However, reheating such foods in a microwave tends to produce an overly hot meat portion, together with soggy bread. It is difficult for the customers to gage the heating process precisely enough to end up with food which is properly heated to customer requirements (since microwaves vary in power and the food portions vary in size).
Small cooking units are used in restaurants and the like for contact heating individual food servings such as sandwiches or the like.
These devices are typically referred to as grills, and involve heated plates which can be applied to the food. An example of such a device is U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,124 to Morley entitled Automatic Sandwich Grill. This Automatic Sandwich Grill includes upper and lower heated platens which engage one or more sandwiches or bread slices with a regulated continuous pressure. Then, a timer which is activated during the cooking cycle, causes the platens to separate and for the lower platen to steeply tilt to about a 45.degree. angle to discharge the toasted sandwich by gravity.
However, the device of this prior patent has several disadvantages. Chief among these disadvantages, is that the cooked food is suppose to slide off of the lower platen upon the cooking time having elapsed. To be most sure that the food is removed from the lower platen, the lower platen is tipped to a 45.degree. angle. This angle fully exposes the heated platen to the user and in the context of home use or self service by a customer, this exposure of a hot element is unacceptably dangerous as being a safety hazard. In the context of a store, having no cooking utensils there may be a tendency to reach for the food off the hot surface. Further, because of the deterioration of the cooking surface over time, even the 45.degree. angle taught by this prior patent will not guarantee the release of food from the cooking surface. Much will depend upon how clean the cooking surface is kept. In the event of normal build up on the platen, it is likely that food will stick. Sticking food will then be likely to be overcooked or burned, even if the power to the resistive heating elements is turned off, because of the thermal inertia of the metal cooking platen. Customers could bum their fingers, trying to remove the food.
Additionally, in this prior device a complicated spring and balance arrangement is required to provide an adequate seating pressure on the food being cooked.
Other patents disclosing various cooking devices include the following:
O'Bryant Miller, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,520,249 PA1 Kelterborn et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,194 PA1 Ott et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,814 PA1 Finesman, deceased, et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,439 PA1 Long Pat. No. Re. 34,617. PA1 a first support; PA1 a second support; PA1 a lower cooking plate extending between and being supported by said first and second supports; PA1 an upper cooking plate extending between and supported by said first and second supports and being movable between a lowered cooking position and a raised position; and PA1 an elector, located between said upper and said lower plates, said ejector being movable between a rearward and a forward position.